268 MINES 



we must add those of the environs of Siegen and Dillenburg, situated in the slaty 

 rock and greywackc of the Devonian system, to which the greater part of the area in 

 question belongs. A little cobalt is explored in the neighbourhood of Siegen, and 

 some mines of the same nature are mentioned in the grand-duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt, 

 and in the duchy of Nassau Usingen. 



But iron is the most important product of the mines on the right bank of the Rhine. 

 Veins of hydrous oxide, or brown haematite, are explored in a great many points of 

 Hessia, and of the territory of Nassau, Berg, Marck, Tecklenburg, and Siegen, along 

 with veins or masses of sparry iron, and beds of red oxide of iron. We may note par- 

 ticularly : 1 . The enormous mass of sparry iron, known under the name of Stahlberg, 

 mined since the beginning of the 14th century in the mountain of Martinshardt, near 

 Miisen ; and the numerous lodes of haematite, brown oxide and sparry iron, in the 

 same district; 2. The abundant and beautiful mines of hydrous oxide and sparry 

 iron on the banks of the Lahn and the Sayn, and among them the mine of Bendorf ; 

 3. The mine of Hohcnkirchen in Hessia, where a powerful bank of manganesiferous 

 ore is worked, and where the mines are kept dry by a gallery more than one thousand 

 yards long, walled over its whole extent. These several mines supply a great many 

 iron works, celebrated for their steel, and for the objects of hardware, scythes, &c., 

 manufactured there. Nassau produces a considerable quantity of first-rate ore 

 annually, most of which is exported. 



The Prussian provinces of the left bank of the Rhine, the duchy of Luxembourg 

 and the Low Countries, include also many iron furnaces, of which a great number 

 are supplied, in whole or in part, by ores of hydrous oxide of iron, occasionally 

 zinciferous, extracted from the transition rocks, where they form sometimes veins, 

 and sometimes also very irregular deposits. A portion is explored by open quarrying, 

 and a portion by underground workings. Great activity has within the last few 

 years been imparted to these operations, by the rapid development of the Westphalian 

 coal-field, and the increased manufacture of coke-made iron. 



The Eifcl formerly possessed important lead mines. Some still exist, which are 

 feebly worked at Berncastle, 8 leagues below Treves, on the banks of the Moselle. 

 Those of Trarbach, situated two leagues lower, are now completely abandoned. The 

 same holds with those of Bleialf, which were opened on veins incased in the groy- 

 wacke-slate, 3 leagues W.N.W. of Priim, not far from the line of separation of the 

 waters of the Moselle and the Meuse, in a district from which manufactures and com- 

 fort have disappeared since the mines were given xip which sustained them. The 

 mine Wohlfahrt, near Rehscheid, produces annually 500 tons of a fine galena, suitable 

 for ' potter's ore.' 



More to the north a great many deposits of calamine occur. The most considerable, 

 and the one which for many years past has given the Company working it the 

 command of the zinc trade of the world, is called the VieiUe Montague (Altenberg), 

 at Moresnct, between Aix-la-Chapelle and Herbesthal. The mass upon which the 

 works are opened, and in which the calamine is very irregularly intermixed with 

 clay and ochre, is about 450 yards in length and 150 in width : it is situated at the 

 junction of the carboniferous limestones and the slate termed the schiste anthraxifere, 

 upon which geological horizon a number of other deposits of a similar character have 

 been found at intervals, with a thickness and richness equally variable. The minerals, 

 brown iron ore, galena, zinc-blende, and iron pyrites occur with the calamine, and 

 the former especially sometimes overpowers it. Among such deposits, many of them 

 largely worked, are Hcrrenbcrg near Holberg, Engis, Huy, Verviers, Corphalie, 

 Membach, and some which reappear, after dipping beneath the alluvial valley of the 

 Rhine, in the same geological position, in Westphalia. 



The Vicillc Montagne Company possess other sources of zinc ore in the Prussian 

 and in the Baden territory ; and, employing about 7.000 men in all, produce no less 

 than 16,000 tons of zinc from their own mines, besides manufacturing a large quantity 

 purchased from other producers. The Kouvellc Montagne Company, Verviers, also 

 work their deposits on a large scale, and increasing success appears to attend the 

 works established more recently on the right bank of the Rhine. 



Of the mines in this border district which produce lead, the most important are 

 those of the Stolberg Westphalia Company, yielding annually 5;000 tons of lead, and 

 those of the Esckweiler and the Alliance Company, also of Stolberg. 



A lead mine is opened at Vedrin, N. of Namur, on a vein of galena, nearly vertical, 

 which courses from N. to S. in a limestone in nearly vertical strata. The vein i 

 from 4 to 15 ft. thick, and is recognised through a length of half a league. The mine, 

 worked for two centuries, presents very extensive excavations ; particularly a fine 

 Adit Level. From its former annual production of 900 tons of lead it has now sunk 

 to a very small amount. 



